Roth IRA and Taxes

Putnam recently surveyed clients about this and found that investors who could pay the taxes on their tax-deferred accounts now, at their current tax rate, are not flocking to this retirement product the way they assumed they would.  The Putnam Investments LLC survey was focused on the higher tax bracket IRA owners who could take advantage of the window of opportunity that would allow them to spread their tax liability over 2011 and 2012 making their future tax obligation disappear.

According to Christine Fahlund, senior financial planner for Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Group Inc. the fear of the government lifting the tax-free status of these plans would leave the higher income earners – the IRS lifted the income restrictions which had previously been at $100,000 – in jeopardy.  She said in a recent Bloomberg article: “If that happened, you would have accelerated your tax payments unnecessarily.”

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